Dave Orrick / St. Paul Pioneer Press

Primary tabs

Author Content

ST. PAUL—The St. Paul Pioneer Press got an exclusive look inside one of Minnesota's most secure buildings housing our most sensitive data. The "Tier 3 Data Center" contains a warehouse full of servers with stuff like Social Security numbers, bank routing numbers, credit card numbers, tax forms, driver's license data, addresses and phone numbers for untold numbers of residents, employees and others doing business with the state. So is it a concrete bunker? Armed guards? Military-style?

ST. PAUL—Minnesota is inching forward on a yearslong major project to beef up security for everyone with a driver's license, tax form or Social Security number stored on a state computer. So pretty much all of us. The state needs $10.6 million — and has for several years — to get it done. It's gotten $0 from the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton.

ST. PAUL—Minnesota attorney general and Democratic candidate for governor Lori Swanson is standing by her running mate, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, amid calls for her to dump him after revelations of sexual harassment in Nolan's office surfaced. "Sexual harassment has no place in the workplace or society," Swanson said in a statement emailed to the media Friday, July 20.

ST. PAUL—A Ramsey County judge has ordered Minnesota elections officials to hand over voter-registration records that Secretary of State Steve Simon had argued were private. They're not private; they're public, according to the ruling by Ramsey County District Judge Jennifer Frisch, who sided with the activist group Minnesota Voters Alliance, which had sued Simon's office. Simon said he would appeal.

ST. PAUL—A Minnesota government watchdog agency is running four separate probes related to the state's troubled computer system for vehicle titles and registration. The system, known as MNLARS, has been beset by problems since it was launched nearly a year ago.

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party opposes all nuclear power and wants to allow felons to vote as long as they're not actually in prison, two of a number of official party positions that might surprise some even within the DFL. The positions are contained in the Democratic party's official "ongoing platform" and "action agenda" — collections of positions on issues ranging from taxes to abortion — that was approved earlier this month at the state convention in Rochester.

ST. PAUL — The Republican Party of Minnesota wants to repeal the Legacy Amendment and outlaw gay marriage (again), two of a number of official party positions that might surprise some even within the GOP. The positions are contained in the Republican party's official "standing platform" — a collection of positions on issues ranging from taxes to abortion — that was approved earlier this month at the state convention in Duluth.

ST. PAUL — Even Jessie Diggins got nothing. From Minnesota's bid to host a World Cup cross-country skiing event to the secretary of state's simple need for permission to spend federal money to stop Russian election hackers, a ton of seemingly no-brainer things didn't get done at the Capitol. This happens to some bills every year. Lawmakers just don't get to everything.

ST. PAUL—They're private business owners and government employees with a basic job: Help you renew your license plates and update the title to your car. And they say that they're about to become legislative roadkill and all Minnesotans will suffer with longer lines and farther drives to obtain vehicle paperwork that we're all legally required to get.

ST. PAUL -- Lawmakers took a step closer to closing a set of DWI loopholes Wednesday, May 16, after the House unanimously approved a plan to fully bring ATV riders and snowmobilers under the same laws that govern drivers of automobiles and trucks. The legislation was inspired by the death of Alan Geisenkoetter Jr., the 8-year-old boy who was killed this winter by an allegedly drunken snowmobiler while ice fishing with his family.